Top 10 Reasons to Ban Human Cloning

Family Research Council

1. Research cloning deliberately creates and destroys human life.Research cloning produces a single-cell human embryo. It is a settled, scientific fact that human life begins at the single cell embryo stage, whether created through sexual (the exclusive means until now) or asexual reproduction (as with cloning). As does any human being, the cloned human being progresses through every stage of life -- embryonic, fetal, infant, adult -- unless something occurs to cause its death. Research cloning kills embryonic human beings for the purpose of experimentation.

2. Cloning endangers and exploits women.Research cloning requires the harvesting of millions of eggs from women. The egg harvesting process involves a drug treatment and invasive procedure that endangers women by placing them at a higher risk for ovarian cancer, infertility, and other health hazards. Egg harvesting also exploits women by treating them as mere egg-making machines, and creating a massive market for eggs and egg donors that would take advantage of poor, disadvantaged women.

3. Cloning violates the Nuremberg Code.The Nuremburg Code condemned the atrocities of the Nazis and affirmed the ethical principles of the civilized world, including the principle that experiments should not be conducted on human beings when it is known beforehand that death will result. Research cloning violates this principle because it involves the deliberate creation and killing of embryonic human beings.

4. Research cloning is unnecessary for medical progress.Although cloning advocates claim that embryonic stem cell research will lead to miracle cures, not a single patient is currently being treated using such research. The promises of future miracle cures from research on cloned embryos are also similarly inflated. However, numerous studies do show the current therapeutic benefits of medical treatments derived (ethically) from adult stem cells and umbilical cord cells.

5. Only a ban on all cloning is enforceable.The U.S. Department of Justice has pointed out it would be virtually impossible to enforce a ban only on reproductive cloning. If cloned human embryos can be produced in labs, there would be no way to ensure they were not implanted in women and brought to birth.

6. Funding research cloning is irresponsible.There are limited
funds for research. Scarce research funding should not be wasted on highly
speculative research on cloned embryos. There is far more promising and ethical
research using adult stem cells and umbilical cord cells to be funded.

7. Research cloning violates the American principle of equality.The United States was founded upon the principle that all people are created equal. This principle is put at risk by research cloning which would create, use, and destroy embryonic human beings. Once human life has been created, proponents of its use and destruction must convince the public that there is a reason to deny the protection we give to every other human life. They can only do so by arguing that some lives are not worthy of protection. But this is a perilous argument for it leaves to the powerful to decide who is protected.

8. Reproductive cloning damages the family.Reproductive cloning would confuse family relationships. A cloned child would have only one parent, who would be its genetic twin. Would the clone be the person's child or sibling? This would also pose great problems of inheritance (What status would the clone have versus other family members?). Finally, cloning could mean more children would grow up in single-parent households, without the benefit of married parents.

9. Good science is ethical science.Business and science, like every other human endeavor, must be subject to ethical limits. Unless the Congress acts to ban all cloning, biotechnology companies and research scientists, like those at Stanford University's new stem cell research lab, will proceed with the cloning of human beings.

10. Most Americans and other countries oppose all human cloning.A majority of Americans support a ban on both reproductive and research cloning. Many countries and international organizations, including Germany, Switzerland, the European Parliament, and others, have banned all human cloning.